The first person convicted under the state's new anti-copper theft law was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison.

Faleifa Mauga, 39, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Steven Alm.

He pleaded guilty last year to the theft charge and to criminal trespass.

Mauga was arrested by police in September at a Navy housing demolition site near the airport.

As the price of copper has risen, so has the number of thefts of the metal around the state, with thieves stripping wiring from highway lighting systems and tearing copper pipes and gutters from public and private buildings.

The new copper theft law, enacted last year, makes it a felony to steal a pound or more of copper.

BODY OF HOMELESS MAN IDENTIFIED

Kaua'i police yesterday identified the homeless man found dead Sunday at Hofgard Park in Waimea as Kenneth Sampson, 47.

Sampson was found under a picnic bench by a passer-by. There were no visible signs of injuries.

TRAFFIC VICTIM WAS FROM PAHOA

HILO, Hawai'i — Big Island police have identified a 52-year-old man who died Saturday from injuries he suffered in a crash on Hawai'i Belt Road as Allan K. Kalua.

Kalua, of Pahoa, was driving a 1986 Honda two-door sedan north when he rear-ended a 1987 Ford pickup truck that was stopped on the highway to make a left turn onto Kukui Camp Road, police said.

The driver of the Ford, a 26-year-old Mountain View man, was not injured.

Police ask anyone with information about this crash to call Officer Andres Fojas at 961-8889. Kalua's death is the fifth traffic fatality on the Big Island this year, compared with six at this time last year.

VOTE TO CREATE MEMORIAL IS TODAY

The U.S. House is expected to vote today on a bill to create a monument to thousands of people diagnosed with Hansen's disease in Hawai'i and forcibly exiled to a remote colony on Moloka'i.

Under the bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai'i, the monument would be built on Moloka'i's Kalaupapa Peninsula to honor the memory of some 8,000 people who were relocated there from 1866 to 1969.

A similar bill, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Dan Akaka, D-Hawai'i, is waiting action in the Senate.

BIG ISLAND VISITOR REPORTS ROBBERY

HILO, Hawai'i — Big Island police were investigating a robbery involving a handgun on the Waipi'o access road Thursday night.

A 35-year-old Colorado man told police that a man with a pistol threatened him and robbed him of an undisclosed amount of cash about 9:30 p.m.

The robber and another person were traveling in a white two-door Dodge sedan, possibly a Dodge Neon.